President says ‘epidemic of gun violence is tearing our communities apart’ after mass shootings in Philadelphia, Fort Worth, Baltimore and Chicago

  • iamtrashman1312@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    According to the Gun Violence Archive, 21,782 Americans have been killed in shootings halfway through 2023.

    I know that’s not 100% mass shootings, but that’s still a stunningly bleak number. Rounding up from the .97 that’s five human lives every hour of 2023 up to July.

    • jimbolauski@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Those numbers are intentionally misleading, they are using people that killed themselves to prop up the numbers. It’s disgusting.

      • lunar_parking@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        And those shouldn’t count? Do you have any idea how much easy access to guns increases suicides? Many, many suicidal people would still be alive without the easy access to guns in the US. It’s one of the easiest and painless ways to kill yourself.

        • borkcorkedforks@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Things like suicide are far more related to a lack mental healthcare and the stigma around getting help than weather or not people are allowed to own firearms. Not everyone has those kinds of problems. An assault weapons ban is certainly unrelated to those seeking self-harm and most crime.

          • sombrero@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            a gun makes it incredibly easy to end someone, including yourself. It takes the killing out of killing and I can promise you that makes a massive difference to the number of both killings and suicides.

            • Katos@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              So we ban pain killers too? Cleaning chemicals? Rat poison?

              The gun didn’t make you kill yourself. Not getting help killed you. Stop chasing the guns, they aren’t the the problem. The problem is that so many people see them as a solution and they need help.

          • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            This article is about assault weapon bans, which are not exactly the go-to for suicide.

          • Dissasterix @lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            This is the sad reality. Gun violence is generally committed by sick people. Similarly, I saw this chart a few years back on Australian gun/knife violence. The plots are mirrored. Violence is sort of static.

              • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                The loser of a knife fight dies in the street, the winner dies in the hospital.

                I don’t recall the origin of that or whether that’s the exact wording but the general idea at least has stuck with me.

                • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  If you run away from a guy with a knife, you have to outrun the knife-wielder. If you run away from a guy with a gun, you have to outrun the bullet.

    • TheSpaceEngineer@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      It’s bad, but after watching over a million Americans die of COVID while (seemingly) half or more of the country refused to take - or often even acknowledge - the most basic of preventative measures… Well, I just don’t know any longer.

      Shootings are far less deadly, and that’s a much more murky subject as there are plenty of justifiable reasons to own a gun. You also have to wonder how many deaths are Darwin Awards, or justified self defense… It’s just an incredibly complicated subject compared to “hey guys, let’s wear masks.”